Cars is a 2006 animated feature film produced by Pixar and directed by both John Lasseter and the late Joe Ranft. It was the seventh Disney/Pixar feature film, and the final film by Pixar before it was bought by Disney. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic cars and other vehicles, it features the voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, and Larry the Cable Guy, as well as cameos by several celebrities consisting of Bob Costas, Darrell Waltrip, Jay Leno, Michael Schumacher, and Mario Andretti.
Cars premiered on May 26, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and was released on June 9, 2006 to generally favorable reviews. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It was released on DVD in late 2006 and on Blu-ray Disc in late 2007. Related merchandise, including scale models of several of the cars, broke records for retail sales of merchandise based on a Disney/Pixar film, with an estimated $1 billion in sales.[2]
